I'm trying to get some clarification on whether or not it is impolite to use 老头 / 老头子 when speaking outside a group of friends when referring to a third party.
From my understanding 老头 is quite casual and I am interested to know if using this to describe someone's elder when also talking to another person who is also my elder, it may sound condescending?
Maybe I am completely off the mark because I understand that something 老王 is fine when referring to an elder and the use of "老" here is not a problem.
If this is somewhat impolite, is there a better word I can use similar to 老太太 to describe an older male?
Example sentence:
我今天看到一个老头在喂鸽子